Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Mohammed Nazir, Tamil Nadu man attempts to join IS in Libya

A 23-year-old youth from Chennai, working in Dubai, was deported to
Delhi on Friday from Sudan after he was allegedly found trying to
establish contact with IS handlers to go to Libiya, sources said. As
soon as he landed in Delhi sleuths from the National Investigation
Agency (NIA) whisked him away after arresting him. This was NIA’s first
arrest of a man from Tamil Nadu for alleged links with IS. “We are
in touch with the NIA team to know more details about him,” a senior
police official from TN police head quarters said. Chennai police
officers however claimed that they were not aware of the arrest of the
city youth in Delhi by the NIA.

The youth identified as Mohamed Nazir,
a computer diploma holder, from Chennai with roots in Papanasam,
Tirunelveli, was working in Dubai since 2014, where his father Packeer
Mohamed was also employed. He visited Chennai last in May this year,
sources said.

It is believed that he was in touch with an IS
recruiter in Dubai named ‘Mad Mullah’ who provided him with fake travel
documents asking him to reach Sudan, from where he would be able travel
to Libiya to join the IS fighters.
This is the first time agencies
have come across a case where an Indian was being planned to join IS
fighters in Libya. Until now Indian agencies believed that all Indians
lured by IS were fighting along the Syria and Iraq border. So far 23
Indians have joined the ranks of IS and six have been reported killed.
It is also believed that so far, security agencies have managed to stop
more than 60 Indians from joining Islamic State by de-radicalising them.

In
November two TN youths were deported from Turkey for suspected
activities but were allowed to meet their families by the central and
state agencies after a few rounds of counselling.

Man records statement against son accused of Islamic State links

In what could be a first for a terror probe in the country, the
father of a youth arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA)
for alleged links to the Islamic State
(IS) has given a statement before a magistrate corroborating how his
son was drawn to jihadist ideology. The statement under Section 164 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) will be used as evidence against
the son.

Sources told The Sunday Express that after Mohammed Naseer, a
23-year-old computer engineer from Tamil Nadu, was deported to India
from Sudan on December 10 last year, his father flew down from Dubai and
met NIA officials. He later gave a Section 164 CrPC statement about how
he was concerned when his son began displaying “odd and suspicious”
behaviour, sources said. A statement under Section 164 can be used as
evidence in court.
According to the NIA, Naseer was deported from Sudan while attempting
to head to Libya to join the Islamic State. He allegedly stayed at a
safe house in Khartoum from September 25, 2015, till October 5, 2015,
and even went through a preliminary IS training course. After Indian
agencies informed the Sudan government about Naseer, the information was
verified by local authorities and he was detained on October 5.

“The case against Naseer has been bolstered with a 164 CrPC statement
given by his father Mohammed Pakeer, a mechanic based in Dubai. Pakeer
has corroborated Naseer’s jihadi links, and has revealed how his son
(took) the wrong path. In the statement, Pakeer has revealed how
Naseer’s behaviour turned suspicious, and how he was drawn to reading
jehadi literature,” a source said.

Hailing from Thanjavur, Naseer did computer engineering at MNM
Engineering College in Chennai between 2010 and 2014. It was during this
period that Naseer and a couple of his friends started visiting a
mosque in Chennai run by the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, a non-political
Islamic organisation that preaches a puritanical version of Islam. It
was founded by P Jainul Abdeen in 2004, when he broke away from the
Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam.
Naseer attended around 30 to 40 lectures on religious discourse by
Jainul Abdeen. He also began to pore over the website onlinepj.com
dealing with Islamic discourse, he has allegedly told interrogators.

After coming into contact with some Nigerians who were allegedly
proficient in hacking, Naseer attended a three-month certified ethical
hacking course in an institute in Chennai, for which he paid a fee of Rs
50,000. Aspiring to become an expert in computer operating system
Linux, Naseer also approached a software expert, popularly called ‘Linux
Bhaskaran’, who coached him between November 2013 and April 2014.
Naseer then set up two websites — http://www.lptw.in and http://www.mohammedmedia.in — both of which reportedly failed to attract many followers.

Concerned about his future when Naseer failed to pass two
supplementary examinations in his engineering college, his father called
him there, sending a visa valid for 90 days in October 2014. Since his
father was staying with some colleagues, he reportedly rented a separate
room for Naseer. Investigators say Naseer found it hard to get an IT job in Dubai as
he had failed to finish his computer engineering course. Finally, in
December 2014, he was employed by a firm in Deira, Dubai, as a web
developer and graphic designer. Since by that time his visa was expiring
and he had to return, the firm allowed him to work from India.

He returned to Dubai in May 2015 after getting an employment visa. Officials say Naseer was paid 2,500 Dirhams a month, but was unhappy
with his job. It was after work, during his free time in the evenings,
that he allegedly began listening to lectures by Islamic scholars and
controversial preachers such as Anjem Choudary on the Internet, and
watching Islamic State propaganda videos.
On Twitter, he allegedly came in contact with a suspected IS
supporter using the name ‘Dawlah’. This supporter is said to have helped
him join three pro-IS WhatsApp groups.

One of these groups was ‘Islam Q&A’, run by a woman called Karen
Aisha Hamidon, who claimed she was from Manila in the Philippines. The
other members of this group were Mohammed Sirajuddin, who was arrested
by the Rajasthan ATS in Jaipur on December 10, a Sharjah resident named
Yusha Kashmiri and an Indian named Salman Munabbar. Investigators claim that in August 2015, Naseer began communicating
on Twitter with ‘Mad Mullah’, an IS propagandist whose profile message
was, “for Hijrah (migration) to Libya, for advice”.

Naseer allegedly expressed the desire to go to Syria, and Mad Mullah
told him that due to heavy security on most routes to Syria and its
border, the only option available was through Sudan. Mad Max is said to
have promised Naseer accommodation, a job and food in Sudan, and
encouraged him to travel on to Libya, saying he would be the first
Indian IS fighter to do so. Naseer has reportedly told interrogators that he managed to secretly
remove his passport from the custody of his employers, and that a visa
for Sudan was e-mailed to him by Mad Mullah. He travelled from Dubai to
Sudan on September 25 on a Flydubai flight, after reportedly deleting
all his IS-related e-mails, WhatsApp and Telegram accounts.

Reaching Khartoum the same day, Naseer made his way to a flat that
reportedly acted as an IS safe house. He is said to have told officials
that two Egyptians and a Russian, Moroccan and Belgian, all in their
early 20s, were already staying at the flat. He was still at the flat
when he was detained. The NIA has also secured three 164 CrPC statements as evidence
against alleged members of local IS affiliate Junud ul Khilafa e Hind
busted in December 2015, including from software entrepreneur Muhammad
Abdul Ahad from Bengaluru, who was deported in January 2015 from Turkey
for attempting to cross over to Syria to join the IS.